Move over Firefox I think I’m in love with Flock

I’ve used Firefox for years now, have been with them since they came on the scene way back when Netscape was popular. I never thought I’d come across another browser that I’d like quite as much but I have to say Flock I rather like you! It’s no surprise though due to the fact that Flock is built upon Firefox.

I downloaded Flock 2.03 last month, not sure where I even got it from or why I even downloaded it but today I decided to fire it up again and discovered that Flock 2.5.5 was the latest version to-date.

I had been having problems with Firefox being unwilling to play Winmedia videos and that wasn’t a good thing to have happening.  I have online courses I am taking and if I am unable to view the video then I’m unable to pass the tests which means…well, I’m not getting any where with my courses.

Win media within Flock Browser

After trying numerous things to make the plug in work in Firefox I came across information for Flock and decided to try using it.  After the copying of a few files I fired up the browser and voila!  Flock was working like a charm!

Flock is a Social Media browser and once you’ve tried the features that are related to FaceBook, Twitter and blogging, you may find that you’re “in love” too.

From within Flock I can now easily and simply connect to my Facebook profiles, including the great new feature that allows you to chat with Facebook friends no matter where you are browsing on the net.  Your friends go with you even if you are on a totally different site!  Twitter profiles and email profiles are also all close at hand without leaving the browser or having to search through Bookmarks or type in addresses in order to get to where I want to be.

Using the social Media bar I’m able to open a side bar on the left side of the browser that connects me easily and quickly to my “People Sidebar” – allowing me to view the latest updates for my friends on FB or Twitter.  I can open a Feeds sidebar that allows me to add new feeds, import and export feeds and choose from a number of pre-configured feeds already included.

I can include addresses for various webmail addresses which gives me one click access to all my webmail addresses that I work with…intuitive and easy to manage and set up…perfect for the way I work.  I can also open my “Favorites” in the sidebar or open the sidebar so that I can access all of my accounts and services that I have set up for WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo, Blogger, Myspace, LinkedIn and many more.

The Drag and Drop web clipboard is very handy…this allows you to drag and drop text, links and images from any website and save them for later.  Very handy for those of you who like to save various info…no more click, click, click, this is all drag and drop fast!

The Photo drag and drop feature allows you to drag images from your computer and revert, crop and rotate images as well as write descriptions for them and then upload them to an account that you set up (such as Flickr) for fast image management and transfers/postings.

Flock Blog Editor

The Blog editor feature is a basic editor that once set up with your account for your particular blog or blogs, makes posting new blog posts a simple 1-2-3 procedure.

The Media Bar that runs across the top of the browser offers you the opportunity to view images in a zoom out window as well as choose from various media stream sites to view videos.  You can also search images on Facebook, Picasa, and videos on Youtube and a lot more.

Flock Media Bar

Setting up Flock was a simple matter of downloading the setup program, and hitting install.  It configured with no problem and the nice thing about Flock is that many of the Add-ins and Plug-ins for Firefox work with it.  I love Sxipper Password manager and after installing it in Flock I simply imported the information from my Firefox and all of my passwords were accessible to me.

Flock streamlines the Social Media scene and allows you to do everything from within the browser making it a simple and smooth process to manage all of your online persona easily and smoothly.

My World Tab

My World is a tabbed window that shows up when you fire up Flock and from it you can do things like search Twitter for trends that are currently popular as well as searches that you wish to save.   You can also view favorite feeds activity and friends activity from this one tab window which provides you with quick and easy “at a glance” info to keep you up to date.

If there is a downfall to Flock it would be the fact that there are few themes that are designed for use with it.  There is one site that I came across that has ported some of Firefox’s themes to suit Flock.  There may be newer themes coming out or they may already be available but the quick search I did didn’t reveal too many just yet.

I like the way the support forum for Flock indicates those questions that have been answered as well as the ones that remain unanswered and includes the number of questions that remain unanswered in a particular subject field.

I haven’t run into any performance problems as yet, the browser works smoothly and quickly and is actually working much faster on my laptop than Firefox has been doing of late.  I have a number of tabs open as well as the media bar and not a single delay.  Even my winmedia feed for my course which usually lags on occasion has run smoothly and flawlessly – a real positive in and of itself. Nothing bugs me more than a laggy video!

Overall, I can see myself getting quite use to using Flock.  If you are into Social Media and want to make it more streamlined and actually a pleasure to navigate…try Flock, you might decide to keep it, if not for your primary browser, at least for those times when you want to move around social media sites more intuitively.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed Flock you can become a “Top Flocker” earning gifts and rewards for referring Flock to others…including friends on Facebook.  I like this referral app because it limits you to 8 friends so it makes you really think about who you believe will actually install the program and give it a try.  You can add additional friends but only 8 at a time.

Personally,  I think I’m ready to move over to Flock full time.

Lex